SOUND BITES

For the Lawyers – The Constitution and Parliament

1. When I asked whether the Constitution or Parliament came first, I just wanted to make certain. But I am sorry that most who answered were not lawyers.

2. According to Tun Suffian in his book “An Introduction to the Constitution of Malaysia”, the Constitution was promulgated on Merdeka Day, 31st August 1957, i.e. before there was a Parliament. In fact the Constitution created the Parliament.

3. The question which arises is whether it is governed by the Interpretation Acts of 1948 and 1967 (Act 388) which in Part 1 section 2 under Application reads;

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DASAR EKONOMI BARU

1. Saya berasa amat sedih kerana terdapat ramai daripada Melayu yang terpelajar menolak Dasar Ekonomi Baru kononnya DEB menguntungkan hanya segelintir daripada kroni pemimpin Kerajaan terutama semasa saya menjadi Perdana Menteri.

2. Mereka ini cuma nampak beberapa kerat peniaga dan pengusaha Melayu yang berjaya. Pendapat mereka ialah semua yang berjaya tentulah kerana mereka kroni, terutama kroni Perdana Menteri. Kata mereka kejayaan Melayu bergantung bukan kerana apa mereka tahu tetapi siapa mereka tahu. Ayat ini datang daripada kecaman orang tertentu yang asalnya dalam bahasa Inggeris iaitu, “It is not what you know but who you know”, yang memberi kejayaan. Penggunaan ayat ini oleh orang Melayu sendiri membuktikan betapa mudah minda mereka dipengaruhi oleh orang lain supaya mereka sendiri akan memburukkan diri mereka.

3. Sebelum saya bincang samada benar atau tidak benar tuduhan ini, izinkan saya jelas sedikit akan Dasar Ekonomi Baru.

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Dear PenyuMenagis (sic),

(This
entry is in response to PenyuMenagis’ comments to Chedet in SOUND BITES (Hiroshima) published on
Aug 12)

 

Assalamu’alaikum.

 

1. Your life makes interesting reading and
so is your outlook on life. Long ago many poor Chinese gave their children to
Malay families, which is why we often see many Malays who look like Chinese.

 

2. My son married a Chinese. The children
are well-behaved and smart. They pray and read the Quran. The mother is very
particular regarding their good upbringing.

 

3. You need not feel insulted being called
Si Hitam (black). It is, or was common practice among Malays to give nicknames
which seem to be opposite of the appearance of a person. We have many village
girls in Kedah nicknamed “Udoh” (from “hodoh” or ugly).
They believe that evil spirits would be cheated and leave the pretty one alone.

Continue reading Dear PenyuMenagis (sic),

MERDEKA

1. Beberapa hari lagi genaplah 52 tahun Negara kita merdeka. Sambutan tahun ini jelas kurang meriah berbanding tahun-tahun sebelumnya kerana wabak selsema H1N1. Tidak ada perarakan besar-besaran di Dataran Merdeka mahupun di Putrajaya sebagaimana biasa.

2. Tetapi ini semua tidak sepatutnya menghalang kita melahirkan rasa bangga dan patriotisme kita terhadap Negara kita.

3. Walaupun saya tidak dapat hadir acara perayaan di Parlimen saya akan berdoa supaya Negara tercinta ini akan terus selamat. Sebagai seorang rakyat biasa saya akan tumpukan perhatian terhadap perkembangan politik, ekonomi dan sosial dalam Negara dan akan cuba menyumbang kepada bidang-bidang ini setakat yang saya mampu.

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SOUND BITES (Water for Singapore)

1. Tan Sri Muhyiddin spoke the truth about my persuading him to supply water to Singapore (read here). But Lee Kuan Yew did not threaten to go to war if we did not supply water. If he had done that, I think I would have stopped any further supply.

2. We were at that time trying to be friendly with Singapore in order to solve several problems. Although raw water would be supplied at 3 cent per 1000 gallons, the understanding was that in future only treated water would be supplied when our treatment plants would be ready. We would also not buy any more treated water from Singapore at 50 cent per thousand gallons when our new treatment plant in Johore is ready.

3. When we no longer needed to buy treated water from Singapore we could raise the price of raw water to Singapore without Singapore being able to raise the price of treated water to us.

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MENYAMBUT MERDEKA

1. Tahun ini kita akan sambut Hari Merdeka dengan menyebat seorang wanita Melayu kerana minum beer.

2. Cerita hukum sebat telah disebar luas di seluruh dunia. Saya tak tahu apakah ini akan memberi imej baik atau tidak baik kepada agama Islam. Sebagai orang Islam kita tidak harus ambil berat pandangan orang lain terhadap Islam dalam melakukan suruhan agama.

3. Tetapi benarkah hukuman ini tepat bagi jenayah minum arak? Apakah hukuman ini terdapat dalam undang-undang syariah di Malaysia.

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THE DOCTORS

1. I gave a talk after I was conferred an honorary degree by the
International Medical University. I directed a major part of my talk
to the new graduates.

2. I explained that medicine is not just a profession, a qualification
for earning a good income. It is a vocation, a calling which involves
dedication to the job of healing the sick and caring for them.

3. What their qualification confers upon them is not just a degree but
as doctors they have been elevated to a special status and endowed
with special powers. They would have in them the capacity to inspire
confidence and trust in their patient. The confidence and trust are
such that people would literally entrust their lives to them, allowing
them to cut open their bodies and do things which could kill if done
by others.

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KASITAH GADDAM

1. Pada
12 Ogos 2009 Hakim Suraya binti Othman telah dapati Tan Sri Kasitah Gaddam
tidak bersalah atas tuduhan dibawah Seksyen 417 Kanun Keseksaan (penipuan) oleh
Pendakwa Raya. Dia (Kasitah) tidak dipanggil untuk membela diri.


2. Dengan itu tamatlah keseksaan dan kesengsaraan bekas Menteri Persekutuan
ini. Selama lima tahun lebih tuduhan ini menghantui kehidupannya.


3. Tuduhan terhadap Kasitah bermula semasa dia menjadi Menteri di dalam Kabinet
saya. Oleh kerana jawatannya yang tinggi saya dimaklumkan akan tuduhan
terhadapnya. Saya tidak begitu yakin yang dianya bersalah.

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SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS IN MALAY

1. The Government has decided that the teaching of science and mathematics would revert to Malay in the Government school, with Chinese in Chinese schools and Tamil in Tamil schools. How this is going to help integrate Malaysians I do not know.

2. Since then I had conducted a poll on my blog. The result is 84 per cent want to retain English as the language medium for these subjects.

3. Admittedly the poll was conducted in the English language and English language speakers might be biased in favour of English.

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